2005-10-13

Football news from all over

Serbia and Montenegro will have a place in the FIFA World Cup finals after their 1:0 win against Bosnia and Hercegovina, thanks to a goal by Mateja Kežman. "Incidents" were expected and the fans of the visiting team were heavily guarded. In the end, seventeen people were injured during the match, mostly by flying objects thrown at them. But navijači are a unique group and their behavior is not, thankfully, the model for everybody else. The journalists from SCG and BiH played a friendly match, which the BiH journalists won 6:4. Then both teams went to a restaurant, where they partied and agreed on further cooperation.

Well, there may have been limited violence at the ground, but in the Prijedor region of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bosnians who dared to support their own country were beaten senseless and in at least one case (I understand) shot.

I hate to sound like the proverbial neighbour's cow story, but I certainly do not wish 'S&M' well at all. Their sulking, racist, moaning presence in World Cup tournaments is not exactly a source of pride for the region.